Water Drops - viewed
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1. Preparations

Open an image in Photoshop that needs one or more water drops. In my example I used the image of a leaf that you can download here (In Windows: right click, save target as).

Add a new layer by clicking on the New Layer icon and make a circular selection with the Elliptical Marquee Tool . It doesn't have to be a perfect circle, as long as it looks like one. For this Photoshop tutorial try to make a selection that is close to the size of my example. This ensures that your result will look the same as the result of this tutorial. After ending this tutorial you're always free of course to experiment with different sizes.

Now press the letter D on your keyboard to make the foreground color black and the background color white.

2. Add a gradient

With the selection still
active, select the Gradient
Tool and
select a linear gradient (B)
in the options bar at the top.

If everything is ok, then we should see a preview of
the gradient in the options bar (A).

Make sure that it goes from black (left) to white (right).
If that's not the case then make sure that the option reverse is
not selected (C). If
you don't see a black & white
gradient, then
double click on the gradient in the options bar (A)
and select the gradient from the list and click OK.

We are now going to draw
a gradient from left to right. We start at the red dot
and pull the gradient all the way to the blue dot.

After you're done, deselect the selection by pressing Ctrl + D (command + D on
the Mac) on your keyboard or by selecting in the menu Select
/ Deselect.

3. Add transparency

Set
the blending mode of the layer in the layers palette
to Overlay.

4. Add layer styles effects

Add
a Layer Style by clicking
on the layer style icon in the layers palette

First select Drop Shadow and
use the following settings:

Now select Inner Shadow and use the following settings;

The result of this later style should look like this:

Remember; you're always free to make slight changes to
the settings in my example. It all depends on what your
background
looks like or how big your water drop is.

5. Add a highlight

Press
de letter X on your keyboard
to switch the fore- and background; the foreground color
is now white. Now select a hard brush with
a size of 6 pixels (the size depends on size of the water
drop) and click once in the upper left corner of our
water
drop.

That's it. A quick and simple way to create a convincing
looking water drop.

Final words

It's recommended to create a Layer
Set (Click here for our Layer sets/groups Photoshop tutorial )
for both water drop and highlight. That makes it easier
to move the water drop by just moving the layer set
using the Move Tool.
You can add extra copies of this
Layer Set by dragging and dropping the Layer Set on
the New
Layer icon .

Remember,
it's also easy to resize the content of a Layer Set
by selecting the Move Tool and
selecting in the menu Edit/Free
Transform or
by pressing Ctrl + T (command + T
on the Mac).
Pulling a corner with the mouse will
allow you to
resize
the
content of the layer set. Make sure to hold down the shift key while you do
that to constrain the proportions of the water drop.

When you resize a water drop, make sure you change
the distance of the drop shadow; make it smaller if
the water drop is going to be smaller, make it bigger
if you want a larger water drop.

You can change the shape of the water drop by selecting
the layer with the water drop and using the Liquify Tool ( In the
menu choose Filter/Liquify... ) and
using the Forward Warp Tool.

The
technique that we have discussed in this tutorial doesn't
change the background behind the water drop. Normally
a water drop works like a magnifying glass and will
magnify the background underneath.

If you want to distort
the background then you have to Ctrl + click ( Command
+ click on the Mac) on the thumbnail of the layer with the water drop
and it will create a
selection
based on the water drop.
You then have to make the background active (it has
to be unlocked, if it isn't double click on it to
unlock it) and with the selection active you go to
the menu
and select Filter/Liquify... and
use the Bloat Tool to
magnify the background by one or two clicks with the
mouse button on the selected area of the background.
Be aware though; this means that you can't move the
water drop anymore, since moving the water drop does not move this magnified
area of the background.